448 HISTOEY OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



Sect. 3. Reception of the Discovery. 



WITHOUT dwelling long upon the circumstances of the general reccp 

 tion of this doctrine, we may observe that it was, for the most part, 

 readily accepted by his countrymen, but that abroad it had to 

 encounter considerable opposition. Although, as we have seen, his 

 predecessors had approached so near to the discovery, men's minds 

 were by no means as yet prepared to receive it. Several physicians 

 denied the truth of the opinion, among whom the most eminent was 

 Riolan, professor at the College de France. Other writers, as usually 

 happens in the case of great discoveries, asserted that the doctrine 

 was ancient, and even that it was known to Hippocrates. Harvey 

 defended his opinion with spirit and temper ; yet he appears to have 

 retained a lively recollection of the disagreeable nature,of the strug- 

 gles in which he was thus involved. At a later period of his life, 

 Ent, 15 one of his admirers, who visited him, and urged him to publish 

 the researches on generation, on which he had long been engaged, 

 gives this account of the manner in which he received the proposal : 

 " And would you then advise me, (smilingly replies the doctor,) to 

 quit the tranquillity of this haven, wherein I now calmly spend my 

 days, and again commit myself to the unfaithful ocean ? You are not 

 ignorant how great troubles my lucubrations, formerly published, have 

 raised. Better it is, certainly, at some time, to endeavor to grow wise 

 at home in private, than by the hasty divulgation of such things to the 

 knowledge whereof you have attained with vast labor, to stir up 

 tempests that may deprive you 'of your leisure and quiet for the 

 future." 



His merits were, however, soon generally recognized. He was 1 ' 

 made physician to James the First, and afterwards to Charles the 

 First, and attended that unfortunate monarch in the civil war. He 

 had the permission of the parliament to accompany the king on his 

 leaving London ; but this did not protect him from having his house 

 plundered in his absence, not only of its furniture, but, which he felt 

 more, of the records of his experiments. In 1652, his brethren of the 

 College of Physicians placed a marble bust of him in their hall, with 

 an inscription recording his discoveries ; and two years later, he was 

 nominated to the office of President of the College, which however he 



16 Epifit. Dedic. to Anatom. Exercit " Biog. Brit. 



